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Occurrence of D ‐aspartic acid in rat brain pineal gland
Author(s) -
Imai Kazuhiro,
Fukushima Takeshi,
Hagiwara Kenichi,
Santa Tomofumi
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
biomedical chromatography
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.4
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1099-0801
pISSN - 0269-3879
DOI - 10.1002/bmc.1130090211
Subject(s) - pineal gland , pinealocyte , medicine , endocrinology , chemistry , cytosol , biology , biochemistry , circadian rhythm , enzyme
We found a high concentration (1030 pmol per pineal gland) of D ‐aspartic acid ( D ‐Asp) in the pineal gland of 6‐week‐old Sprague‐Dawley (SD) rats. The content of D ‐Asp decreased with age, being 210 and 33 pmol per pineal gland in 28‐ and 45‐week‐old rats respectively. The proportion of D ‐Asp [( D ‐Asp/total Asp) × 100] also decreased with age, declining from 66% to 10% between 6 and 45 weeks after birth. The proportion of D ‐Asp did not differ between the sexes. The concentration of D ‐Asp was higher at night (at 2.00 a.m. 2830±485 pmol per pineal gland) than during the day (at 10.00 a.m. 1030±200 and at 3:00 p.m. 682±194 pmol per pineal gland), suggesting that biosynthesis of D ‐Asp in the pineal gland occurs at night. D ‐Asp was found to be distributed in the cytosol of pinealocytes, but its biological role remains unclear.